Sarah Palin considering 2014 Senate bid

Sarah Palin opened the door Tuesday to running for Senate next year in Alaska.

“I’ve considered it because people have requested me considering it, but I’m still waiting to see what the lineup will be and hoping that … there will be some new blood, some new energy,” the former governor told Sean Hannity during an appearance on his radio show.

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“We’d meet with any Alaskan interested in challenging Mark Begich,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brad Dayspring told POLITICO, “and Governor Palin is right in that Begich abandoned his campaign promises — most notably by being the deciding vote on ObamaCare — and must be repealed and replaced.”

It is very hard to envision Palin, who resigned in July 2009 before completing her first term as governor, ultimately getting in the race. She likes keeping herself in the news, and flirting with a high-profile Senate bid is sure to generate buzz. But she would need to give up a big stream of income for a race she would not be certain to win.

The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling reported in February that only 34 percent of Alaska voters view her favorably and 59 percent hold a negative opinion. A May survey from Republican firm Harper Polling found that 62 percent of Republicans view Palin favorably and 30 percent view her unfavorably.

If she ultimately prevailed, she would enter a chamber of 100 with no seniority.

Indeed, the 2008 vice presidential nominee sounded a tone of reluctance when chatting with Hannity.

“Any American with a heart for service has to always have in the back of their mind that they would do anything [and] everything that they could to help the cause – even if perhaps it’s something that doesn’t look necessarily appealing or necessarily fitting in with a conventional plan that they would try to orchestrate for themselves and their family,” she said. “I, along with anybody, would have to say that I would do whatever I could to help. And you know if that was part of that help, then it would have to be considered.”

Palin ripped into Begich’s record, particularly on energy issues.

“Because he’s on the wrong side of the aisle, he has to go along to get along with his Democratic leadership,” she said. “And that’s a shame. That’s a waste of opportunity for our nation.”

Palin, who defeated then-sitting Gov. Frank Murkowski (father of Sen. Lisa Murkowski) in a Republican primary, also warned against dynasty politics in a not-so-subtle jab at Begich, the former mayor of Anchorage. His father, a U.S. congressman, died in a 1972 plane crash.

She said that “the same old politicians in the state that come from political families … have sort of reigned up there for so many years.”

More broadly, Palin stressed the importance of getting “new blood” in politics.

“Ted Cruz needs reinforcements,” she said of the Texas freshman. “My political action committee [and] the people who I am close to and trust, we work together beating the bushes to find people who will run.”

“I can’t wait for these midterms,” she added, “because I won’t stop until we get that government that the middle class, hardworking average everyday American deserves: that’s a government that will work for them and not against them.”